We just wanted to share some of the signs that you might have been seeing along the road in Richardson. Starting several months back, the City of Richardson has been adding these to a number of locations around town, many of them appear right where you enter the city.

We think these are a nice little welcome into our city, a good way to make motorists bike-aware, and a great way to articulate that we are a bike friendly community.

We feel that these are a nice additions to the cycling infrastructure and a good compliment to our trails and bike lanes.

They’re pretty self-explanitory, but here is the City of Richardson‘s description of each:

In addition to bicycle lanes, the City is installing “Share the Road” signs on Renner Road where hundreds of cyclists ride many evenings and weekends despite the higher vehicle speeds and volumes. On some collector roadways and residential streets we simply provide a Bike Route sign without a dedicated lane. Below are examples of these different signs and characteristics associated with each facility type.

Share the Road – This sign is posted on routes where vehicular traffic may encounter larger volumes of cyclists even though it is not a dedicated bike route or bike lane. Cyclists are legally permitted on these roadways so these signs are to make motorists aware of the presence of bicycles and to remind them to give the same rights to the bicycles as they would to motorized vehicles (cars, trucks, etc.)

Bike Route – This sign is posted along roadways in the city that have lower traffic volumes than “share the road” streets, and will help cyclists connect from bike lane to bike lane or between an off-street trail and an on-street bike lane. These routes may carry higher volumes than streets with designated bike lanes, but most of these routes are located on collectors or residential streets versus arterials.

Bike Lane – This sign is located along roadways that have a dedicated bike lane. There are currently six bike lanes located in Richardson and more are proposed as future funding is available. This bike lane sign will also be accompanied by white pavement markings of the cyclist symbol and a solid white stripe separating motorized traffic from the bicycles.

For some reason the city didn’t put up a description for the Bike May Use Full Lane signs. To us, those are just as important, if not more informative than the others. You’d be surprised to know that many motorists AND cyclists don’t realize that this is the law.